More than 6,300 people who previously held discretionary medical cards were found to be ineligible following reviews carried out this year, HSE officials have told the Public Accounts Committee.

Health service chiefs insisted that there had been no change in policy in relation to the awarding of medical cards.

Department of Health secretary general Ambrose McLoughlin said that, as a result of the introduction of a centralised system, application processing was now carried out on an equitable and consistent basis using standard operating procedures.

“Previously different approaches may have been used in different parts of the country resulting in inequitable distribution of discretionary cards.”